Baxter says he’ll leave if Bafana fail to qualify for Afcon

Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter says he will step down if the team fails to qualify for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).


This comes after South Africa failed to qualify for the 2018 Fifa World Cup following a 2-0 defeat to Senegal in Polokwane on Friday.

“My mandate, and I don’t think we have a written one, but my mandate as I understood was to try qualify for the World Cup and try qualify for Afcon. And if you can do both, that’s great. No one said if you don’t qualify for the World Cup, then you may as well pack up and go and no one said if you don’t qualify for Afcon you may as well pack up and go,” said Baxter after the Senegal game.

“As a professional I know that if I have a nightmare in the World Cup (qualifiers) and I have a nightmare in the Afcon (qualifiers), then I will go and they won’t need to chase me out. Because if I don’t think progress is being made on any front, then I won’t stay in the job and that’s not something people have to ask me,” added Baxter.

South Africa are joint top of Group E with Libya after a 2-0 win over Nigeria.

Libya have a superior goal difference after beating Seychelles 5-1 in their opening group match.

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